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By Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Mmantsetsa Marope, Director of the UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE-UNESCO) and Renato Opertti, Senior Programme Specialist of the IBE-UNESCO

The Global Alliance to Monitor Learning (GAML) is making steady progress in defining the learning outcomes indicators of the SDG 4 monitoring framework. The first step for all of these indicators – whether they refer to adult numeracy, digital literacy or global citizenship skills – is to develop a framework that by listing all of the content and skills can serve as reference to teach, develop and assess children, youth and adults. These frameworks will play a key role in the GAML strategy of linking existing assessments to produce SDG 4 data instead of developing a new global assessment.

In this context, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the International Bureau of Education (IBE) have developed the Global Framework of Reference for Mathematics, which is the subject of an online consultation. We need your feedback on this framework that will pave the way to monitoring progress with global monitoring indicator 4.1.1, which tracks the proportion of children and young people achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics in Grades 2/3 and at the end of primary and lower secondary education. Continue reading →

No strategy – no matter how thorough – can succeed unless it is backed by good data that chart progress towards its objectives and meets the needs of its users, especially countries.

As a previous blog has noted, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) wants to ‘re-boot’ the education sector through data innovations that respond to demand, and we are pushing hard for a Global Strategy for Education Data. As part of that push, we have been making the case for greater investment in the data needed to chart progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on education, publishing a blog and paper in the run-up to this week’s replenishment meeting of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), in Dakar, Senegal. The meeting aims to secure pledges from donors to secure the future education of no less than 870 million children. Continue reading →

As we unpack our bags following last week’s meeting of the Technical Cooperation Group (TCG) in Dubai, it seems a good time to unpack our thoughts on the success of the event. Over three days, representatives of countries, technical partners, donors and civil society reviewed progress in developing the indicators and estimating the resources needed to help countries implement the global and thematic monitoring frameworks for Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). Continue reading →

In many countries, education ministers are like air traffic controllers, who see a storm on the horizon but find that 80% of their navigation instruments are either malfunctioning or non-existent. They simply don’t have the data to steer their way out of a global learning crisis that affects more than one-half of all children of primary and lower secondary school age, according to estimates by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

This is why the UIS, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and other partners are pushing for greater (and better) investment in data to support countries in their quest to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). The UIS is focusing on the pursuit of the data, while the GPE is leading the call for investment, as the only global fund dedicated solely to education in developing countries. Continue reading →

By Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)

This blog also published by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE)

The SDG 4 Data Digest sets out a roadmap for countries and donors to produce quality data

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with their strong emphasis on inclusion and equity, compel us to look beyond national and regional averages to ensure that nobody is left behind. As a result, countries face unprecedented pressure to produce and use more and better data.

The new edition of the SDG 4 Data Digest, launched during the GPE Board meeting in Paris today, sets out the data challenges that confront countries and the international community. While last year’s Data Digest focused on the indicators needed to track progress, this year’s Digest zooms in on data quality as the foundation for an effective monitoring framework to support the pursuit of SDG 4: a quality education for every child by 2030. Continue reading →

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is working to develop reporting scales to help governments monitor student learning in mathematics and reading over time and make good use of the resulting data to shape policy – essential stepping stones to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4): a quality education for all. The aim is to make the greatest possible use of existing national assessments and cross-national assessments to produce internationally-comparable data. Continue reading →

750 million adults – including 102 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 – cannot even read or write a simple sentence, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. This is one of our most widely cited figures, reported in just about every report and index related to sustainable development. Yet what do the data really tell us? The truth is these serve simple measures serve as a barometer – alerting us of the problem but offering little in the way of guidance to help governments and non-governmental organizations address an issue key to people’s survival and success in an increasingly digital world. Continue reading →